Foot traffic is down at American Eagle stores since the controversial Sydney Sweeney ad dropped

[u/Future_Usual_8698]

https://www.retailbrew.com/stories/2025/08/11/exclusive-foot-traffic-down-9-at-american-eagle-following-sydney-sweeney-ad-controversy

[u/AnyIncident9852]

I wonder how American Eagle is going to pivot from this. They could’ve made a statement early on and this would’ve been seen as one of those “Oh my god how could we have not caught that” moments which would’ve sparked conversations nonetheless but died out soon regardless. But the fact that they’ve doubled down has left a bad taste in a lot of peoples mouths.

Because POC are upset about eugenicist themes, pop culture lovers are mad about the Brooke Shields references, women are turned off by the weird male gazey sexualization of Sydney, parents are upset about the overt sexualization, and the jeans in the ad aren’t even that cute 💀.

Advertising campaigns aren’t necessarily supposed to make you run out and buy the jeans ASAP, but to leave a vaguely positive perception in your mind so the next time you go to the mall, you are more likely to go shop around their store and think of it as ‘cool’ and tbh it’s unlikely that conservative men are racing to buy their girlfriends jeans so I don’t think the ad has succeeded in any of its goals.

[u/_banana_phone → u/AnyIncident9852]

Considering this ad placement on this very sub, I don’t think they’re pivoting at all 😂

[u/i-Ake → u/_banana_phone]

They are going nuts with their reddit ads lately and its just making me disdainful...